Kiely & Lin in U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,230, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, describe polyhydroxypolyamides prepared from aldaric acids and alkylenediamines, and in particular poly(alkylene glucaramides), as for example, poly(hexamethylene glucaramide) from glucaric acid. Such polymers based on glucose are of particular interest because of the ready availability and low cost of glucose. Other polymers are described in copending application U.S. Ser. No. 07/927,914, "An Improved Process for Making Aldarate Esters, Ester/lactones and Lactones", filed Aug. 12, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,967, and incorporated herein in by reference in its entirety. The patent and application describe processes in which various aldaric acids or their derivatives are converted to "activated aldarates" which are then polymerized with primary alkylenediamines to yield poly(alkylene aldaramides).
Polymers having film-forming and/or adhesive properties are desirable for a myriad of uses. The polymers of Kiely & Lin made with straight-chain diamines do not form satisfactory cast films from aqueous solutions and have poor or no adhesive properties, but polymers of 2-methylpentamethylenediamine with glucaric or xylaric acid such as are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,230 now have been found to be film-forming and to exhibit adhesive properties.
Therefore it is clear that a greater variety of film-forming polyaldaramides having adhesive properties would be desirable.